Introduction to ASP

Introduction

Are you sick of static HTML pages? Do you want to create dynamic web pages? Do you

want to enable your web pages with database access? If your answer is “Yes”, ASP might

be a solution for you. In May 2000, Microsoft estimated that there are over 800,000ASP

developers in the world (1). You may come up with a question what the heck ASP is.

Don’t worry. After reading this paper, you will know what it is, how it works and what it

can do for you. Are you ready? Let’s get to know ASP together.

What is ASP?

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. Microsoft introduced Active Server Pages in

December 1996, beginning with Version 3.0. Microsoft officially defines ASP as:

“Active Server Pages is an open, compile-free application environment in which you can

combine HTML, scripts, and reusable ActiveX server components to create dynamic and

powerful Web-based business solutions. Active Server pages enables server side scripting

for IIS with native support for both VBScript and Jscript.” (2). In other words, ASP is a

Microsoft technology that enables you to create dynamic web sites with the help of server

side script, such as VBScript and Jscript. ASP technology is supported on all Microsoft

Web servers that are freely available. If you have Window NT 4.0 Server installed, you

can download IIS (Internet Information Server) 3.0 or 4.0. If you are using Window

2000, IIS 5.0 comes with it as a free component. If you have Window 95/98, you can

download Personal Web Server (PWS), which is a smaller version of IIS, from Window

95/98 CD. You can also download these products for free from Microsoft’s web site.
 Well, you have learned what the ASP technology is. Next, you will learn about an

ASP file. Is it the same as HTML file? Let’s explore it.

What is an ASP file?

An ASP file is quite like an HTML file. It contains text, HTML tags and scripts,

which are executed on the server. The two widely used scripting languages for an ASP

page are VBScript and JScript. VBScript is pretty much like Visual Basic, whereas

Jscript is the Microsoft’s version of JavaScript. However, VBScript is the default

scripting language for ASP (3). Besides these two scripting languages, you can use other

scripting language with ASP as long as you have an ActiveX scripting engine for the

language installed, such as PerlScript.

The difference between an HTML file and an ASP file is that an ASP file has the

“.asp” extension. Furthermore, script delimiters for HTML tags and ASP code are also

different. A script delimiter is a character that marks the starting and ending of a unit.

HTML tags begins with lesser than (<) and greater than (>) brackets, whereas ASP script

typically starts with <% and ends with %>. In between the delimiters are the server-side

scripts.

To write an ASP script, you don’t need any additional software because it can be

written with any HTML editor, such as Notepad. Nonetheless, if you feel bored with the

plain text and would like to use some special software, you can use Microsoft visual

InterDev, which helps you to easily create an ASP page by giving you nice highlights and

debugging dialogue boxes (4).

I hope that you already have an idea of what an ASP file is and how it is different

from an HTML file. In the next step, you will learn how ASP works. Let’s go.
How does it work?

As you have learned, scripts in an ASP file are server-side scripts, which means that the

scripts are processed on the server and then the result of the scripts will be converted to

HTML before sending to the web browser. To illustrate, let’s take a look at this table to

compare the process of retrieving an HTML page and an ASP page (5).

HTML process ASP process

1. A user requests a web page (i.e., 1. A user requests a web page (i.e.,

http://www.utexas.edu/index.html http://www.devasp.com/test.asp

in the web browser. in the web browser.

2. The browser finds the appropriate 2. The browser finds the appropriate

web server, and asks for the web server (like IIS or PWS), and

required page. asks for the required page.

3. The web server locates the required 3. The web server locates the required

page and sends it back to the page, and parses out the ASP code

browser as HTML text. within the ASP script delimiters

(<%…%>), produces a standard

HTML page. The server sends that

HTML page back to the browser, so

the user cannot see ASP code.

4. The browser executes the client side 4. The browser executes the client side

scripting (like JavaScripts) scripting (like JavaScripts)

determining how to display the determining how to display the

results results
As you can see, the whole process of the two is quite similar. Since ASP is a server-side

technology, the required page is executed on the server before the HTML is created and

served to the client. To make it clearer, Figure1 shows the processing behind a browser

request to an ASP page (6).

Request ASP page Request ASP page

Client Browser Server

Send result Send result

Recognize
Creating
“.asp” extension
HTML file

Object /
Component ASP Engine ASP Script

Call for Call for

Oracle

Provider
Call for ADO
SQL Driver (ActiveX Data Object)
Server

Access
ADO
ODBC

Connect to data access

FoxPro

For example, a client types in a URL into your browser. The browser requests the

ASP page from the web server. The server proceeds the file with “.asp” extension to ASP

Engine in which Objects or ActiveX Components can be used to extend the web server

with application-specific functionality. In addition, ASP will use ADO to connect to a

database (SQL, Access, Oracle, etc.) to pull out the relevant data, such as the current

weather in a specific area. Thus, a different page is generated according to the area

specified and time that the page is accessed. Then, the server generates HTML tags

before sending it back to the client. Therefore, when you view the source of an ASP file,

you will not see any different from a standard HTML file.

ASP includes five build-in objects (7):

• Request – to get information from the user that is passed along with an HTTP

request

• Response – to output data to the requesting client

• Server – to control the Internet Information Server

• Session – to store variables associated with a given user session

• Application – to store information that remain active for the lifetime of an

application, such as a page counter.

You have already known how ASP technology works. Isn’t it fascinating? You

probably want to know how to make it work and what you need to make it work. In the

next section, you will find the way to do it.

How to make it work?

First of all, you need to set up an environment where you can execute your

scripts; that is you need to set up your web server (IIS or PWS). If you have an NT

Server, IIS is already installed for you. If you Window 95/98, you can install PWS from

the add-ons directory on the Win 98 CD. If you are using UNIX, you can Chili!Soft

(www.chilisoft.com) instead of Microsoft web server. Next, you will need to install some
database software, such as MS Access, Microsoft SQL Server (in case you want to

connect to database).

Last but not least, you need an ASP editor. It can be any text editor, like NotePad

or Microsoft Visual InterDev. To create an ASP file, you may need to know a scripting

language, such as VBScript or JScript. If you want to deal with a database, you also need

to have some knowledge about database, such as creating a Data Source Name (DSN),

creating a recordset. You can learn more about database access from this web site:

http://www.builder.com/Programming/ASPIntro/ss06.html

What are its advantages?

While learning about ASP technology in previous sections, you might ask

yourself all the time what it can do for you. Certainly, ASP must have some strength;

otherwise, it won’t be popular as such. Let’s count on its strong points and functionality.

1. Dynamic web page – Since ASP supports scripting languages, which run on the

web server, your web page can be dynamically created. For example, you can

create your web page so as to greeting each user when they log into your page

differently.

2. Browser independent – ASP is browser independent because all the scripting code

runs on the server. The browser only gets the results from the server in a standard

HTML page.

3. Database Access – One of the greatest assets of ASP is database connectivity.

ASP enables you to easily build rich database functionality into your web site,

such as form processing.

 4. Building-in objects – The five built-in objects that come with ASP facilitate Web

application development. For example, you can use Request object to retrieve

browser request information.

5. Free availability – Yes, it’s free. You can download web server (IIS or PWS) for

free from Microsoft’s web site. You don’t even have to have any special tool to

write an ASP file. In other words, you can simply use any text editor, like

NotePad.

Conclusion

ASP technology is a server-side programming developed to enable dynamic web

pages. With its build-in objects and ActiveX components, ASP developers can create a

dynamic web page and make use of database access. Now that you have basic knowledge

about ASP, it is better to have a hands-on experience, which is the best way to learn to

learn how to write an ASP file. There are tons of ASP tutorials out there on the Web. You

can also find some tutorials included at the end of this paper. Enjoy and good luck!

Reference

1. Lesson1: Intro to ASP

http://haneng.com/lessons/1.asp

2. ASP Overview
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/server/asp/aspover.asp

3. Introduction to ASP.DevASP
http://www.devasp.com/samples/asp.asp

4. Introduction to Active Server Pages

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/98/39/index2a.html?tw=programming

5. Getting Started with ASP

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/090800-1.shtml
6. Molisakulmongkon, P. (1999). Developing Web Database with ASP. Bangkok: DK
Book House: p. 162.

7. Scripting with ASP

http://www.zdnet.com/devhead/stories/articles/0,4413,1600216,00.html
*This paper is written by Jantrathip Sae-Chin for the course EDC385G Interactive
Multimedia Design & Production as the University of Texas - Austin